Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace said on Tuesday that an investigation it had conducted found tea bags sold in China by Unilever's Lipton brand contained unsafe levels of pesticide residue, though Unilever said the product was safe and to standard.

　　Greenpeace said in a statement that in March it randomly purchased several boxes of Lipton tea bags sold in two Beijing stores and sent them to an independent laboratory for pesticide residue testing.

　　"The testing found that all four Lipton samples contained pesticides that exceeded the EU's maximum levels of residue, while three samples contained pesticides unapproved by the EU," the group said.

　　"Some of the detected pesticides are also banned for use in tea production by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture." Greenpeace named one of the pesticides it found as the insecticide Bifenthrin, which is banned in the European Union.

　　Unilever said in a statement posted on its official Chinese microblogging account and confirmed by a company spokesman that all its Lipton tea products were safe.

　　"As a responsible multinational company, Unilever China has all along upheld high quality and the protection of consumers' rights. All the Lipton tea products we make are completely in line with national standards on pesticide residue, and are safe and up-to-standard goods," the company wrote.

　　Last November, China's quality watchdog said one of Unilever's Lipton tea varieties was found to contain unsafe levels of toxins. Unilever said that all those related tea products had been recalled and destroyed.

　　Lipton sells dozens of varieties of tea in China and is the dominant seller of tea bags in a country where consumers generally drink loose-leaf tea.

　　China has struggled to rein in health violations in the unruly and vast food sector despite harsh punishments and repeated vows to deal with the problem.

　　【新聞快訊】4月23日，國際環保組織綠色和平發布調查報告稱“立頓”綠茶、茉莉花茶和鐵觀音袋泡茶含有多種禁用農藥，其中硫丹、三氯殺螨醇和聯苯菊酯等農藥被證明可能影響男性生育能力和胎兒健康，滅多威是高毒農藥。綠色和平的調查報告瞬間將全球最大茶葉品牌、聯合利華旗下的“立頓”推到了風口浪尖上，有網友驚呼“喝茶也中招，以后不敢再喝立頓了”。

　　國際環保組織綠色和平的報告說，2012年3月在北京隨機購買了四份“立頓”牌袋泡茶，品種分別為紅茶、綠茶、茉莉花茶和鐵觀音。這些樣本隨后被送往獨立的第三方實驗室進行農藥殘留檢測。檢測結果顯示“立頓”綠茶、茉莉花茶和鐵觀音樣本均含有農業部明令禁止在茶樹上使用的高毒農藥滅多威。累計下來，四種樣品共含17種農藥。

　　消息一經披露，立即在網上引起軒然大波，對于網民的質疑，聯合利華通過其官方微博表示：“我們注意到綠色和平組織于今日發布了關于立頓的報告。對此聯合利華中國鄭重聲明：作為負責任的跨國公司，聯合利華中國一貫堅持高質量、保護消費者權益。我們生產的立頓茶系列飲品完全符合我國國家標準中關于農藥殘留的規定，是安全和合格的產品。”

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